Irishman, 72, 'hopelessly in love' with 29-year-old Polish fiancée

A 72-year-old Irishman in love with a Polish beauty more than 40 years his junior has been forced to delay their Christmas wedding.

Patsy Brogan, who has been married three times before, was planning to set off for Krakow from Ireland with bride-to-be Daria Weiske, 29. But the St. Stephen's Day ceremony has been put on hold until the New Year after Weiske came down with the flu.

“It’s heartbreaking, but we can wait a little while longer,” Brogan said. “She is looking out for me all the time, and believe me, it’s not my money that she’s after.”

A father of nine children, Brogan first married in Manchester in 1957 and then twice again in 1992 and 1995 in Birmingham, where he worked as a pilot before returning to Ireland.

He says his drinking and womanizing cost him his three marriages, but insists his philandering days ended two years ago after meeting Weiske, a former waitress who speaks six languages.

“She could have her pick of a thousand men, but she chose me. She is my pretty little baby. She wouldn’t look at another man, not even if it was Rock Hudson.

"We’re hopelessly in love."

Drinking may have helped doom his previous marriages, and now, Brogan is at the center of a liquor license dispute.

The Donegal County Council has begun legal action to shut a shed he calls the Bog Inn Hotel, situated right beside his bungalow home high in the hills, 13 miles from Donegal town in an area known as the Frosses.

The Council claims Brogan is running a shebeen (illegal bar). But the groom-to-be says it's a private bar he uses only to entertain friends. The dispute has been raging for the last two years.

“We get visitors from all over the place who come here with their own drinks to enjoy themselves, some of them millionaires who come in by helicopter. We don’t sell drinks, despite what some people might think.

“There is a stage and Daria is up there playing the guitar and singing her heart out. She has a voice like Patsy Cline, and I’ve watched women weep with emotion because she is so nice. She is an absolute star, and everybody wants her.”

The curious case of the Bog Inn Hotel will be back in court Jan. 25. By that time, the couple plans to be happily married.

“She is my little darling. I’ve heard people suggest she might be some type of gold-digger, but that’s complete rubbish. She is like nobody else I’ve ever met. I can’t believe my luck.”